That seemed to have been John Hickenlooper’s take last week when he said “a recession like this really is driven by people’s mental state.”

I’m no economist and certainly no shrink.

But I run across stories like Denver window installer Richard Vigil, who moved his wife and four kids into his parents’ place after losing his job and health insurance last year.

I listen to Hazel Miller, a local entertainer mourning the loss of her home in Lakewood to foreclosure.

And I watch Heather Martinez standing outside a Denver car wash soliciting spare change to feed her two kids.

Are we to think their troubles are all psychological?

“Mental state? Man, I only wish this were just in my head,” says Martinez, who was laid off from her job as a computer tech last winter.

Hickenlooper has stepped in it.

His remark on a radio talk show Thursday was not only impolitic for a candidate running for governor during the worst downturn since the 1930s. It was remarkably tone deaf on a day when stocks and commodities were plummeting. It was also out of touch with hundreds of thousands of people he’s already governing as Denver mayor.

It’s not mental dysfunction that’s causing Coloradans to cut back their spending and look skeptically at their financial future. It’s reason and rationality based on watching people we know lose their livelihoods. Anyone who’s not worried is either wealthy like Hickenlooper or out to lunch.

AM 760 radio host David Sirota reminded the mayor on- air that former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas was ousted as top economic adviser to John McCain in 2008 for remarking that “this is a mental recession.”

“No, I’m not saying that,” Hickenlooper backtracked, only then to step even deeper into his psychobabble and flip-floppery.

“What I’m saying is that people’s attitudes are connected to the economy. Now, it’s not just a mental recession. . . . There’s nothing just mental about this. But the country’s attitude is very relevant.”

Huh, I asked his handlers.

“John knows darn well the reality of this. He’s a guy who lost his job in a downturn. So what he’s saying by this is we as Americans, we as Coloradans, we’ve got to get our mojo back,” campaign manager Mike Melanson said in his attempt at damage control.

I’ll admit that Hick’s brand of hucksterism has worked well for him and, generally, for Denver. I’ll also admit there are points to be made about consumer confidence and our collective psyche.

But if we’ve lost our belief in anything, it’s not in ourselves, as Hick asserts.

We’ve lost faith in a system that is bailing out banks that are squeezing us, handing out tax breaks to companies that are ripping us off and giving write-offs to the people who are exploiting us. We’re losing hope in a government that too long has assured us the fundamentals of our economy are strong. And we’re losing confidence in leaders who tell us that what ails us is in our minds.

Hickenlooper continues to dodge questions about ending business-friendly tax write- offs now under debate at the state Capitol. After all, it’s easier to mouth off about our mojo and mental states than answer the tough questions on how to stop the bleeding.

Spain came under repeated attack starting Thursday in what authorities called linked terrorist incidents, when a driver swerved a van into crowds in Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas district, killing more than a dozen people and injuring scores of others. Early Friday, an attempted attack unfolded in a town down the coast

If there’s one superhero character whose rise might be most tied to the events of World War II, it is Captain America, who emerged from the minds of legends Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and sprung forth from an iconic 1941 debut cover on which Cap smacks Hitler right in the kisser.

A customer dining at Washington’s Oceanaire restaurant noticed an unusual line at the bottom of his receipt: “Due to the rising costs of doing business in this location, including costs associated with higher minimum wage rates, a 3% surcharge has been added to your total bill.”